Trent Williams denies using racial slur at official

Posted by Mike Florio on November 21, 2013, 8:26 PM EDT

AP

The latest twist in the Trent Williams-Roy Ellison saga comes from an unlikely source.

John Wooten, chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, contends that Williams uttered a racial slur at Ellison, an NFL umpire, after Ellison directed players from both teams to stop using abusive language at each other, according to Mark Maske and Mike Jones of the Washington Post. (Both Williams and Ellison are African-American.)

Wooten’s explanation also confirms that Ellison did indeed direct inappropriate language at Williams in response.

“We haven’t talked to Roy,” Wooten told the Post. “But we are told that the players, black and white, were saying all types of things back and forth during the game. Roy steps in and says, ‘Let’s stop this.’ Trent says to him, ‘F–k you, N-word.’ By all rights, Roy should have thrown his flag there and said, ‘You’re gone.’ But he didn’t. He comes back at Trent with some bad language. Now Roy is wrong, too.”

On Thursday, Williams denied making “any derogatory statement” toward Ellison, according to the Post.

It’s odd that Wooten would get involved in this situation, especially if he hasn’t spoken to Ellison. (According to the Post, the Fritz Pollard Alliance obtained the information from NFL official Byron Boston.) But the Fritz Pollard Alliance has opted to ask players to stop using the “N” word toward each other, regardless of the race of the person using the term.

“A number of game day officials have brought to our attention the disturbing trend of racial epithets, including the ‘N’ word, being commonly used on the field during games,” the Fritz Pollard Alliance said in a statement. “While we understand and respect that different generations have different means of communicating, we cannot condone on any level the use of the ‘N’ word.”

Wooten separately lamented that modern players don’t realize the true ugliness of the term.

“I want our African-American players to understand what’s going on,” Wooten said. “I don’t use that word ever. I’ve been called the ‘N’ word playing football, particularly in college. We felt it was time to take a stand.”

Wooten’s comments come during the same week Bryant Gumbel argued that no one should use the word.

“Using the ‘N’ word says a lot about you and none of it is good,” Gumbel said to close the 200th episode of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. “It just advertises your ignorance. . . . Pronouncing it with an ‘A’ after the ‘double G’ in the word because you’re with your boys makes you no more ‘with it’ than the clown who pronounces it with the ‘-er’.”

Charles Barkley offered a different opinion on Thursday’s edition of The Dan Patrick Show.

“I use the ‘N’ word,” Barkley said. “I’m gonna continue to use the ‘N’ word, and I get so sick of white people trying to tell me I don’t know the difference when somebody is trying to insult me or I’m using it with my friends in a way where we joke around with it all the time, we talk to each other with it all the time. . . . When me and my friends use the ‘N’ word, it’s not hatred, it’s not hatred at all.”

Right or wrong, Barkley’s not-uncommon attitude toward the term illustrates how hard it will be to wipe the word from the vocabulary of all Americans.

Hopefully somebody will read this blog to the NFL and they will listen to what’s going on out there. Every Sunday.

thereyougo2 says:Nov 21, 2013 8:42 PM

Time for the NFL to institute a new penalty. Use of the N……word, 15 yards and loss of down. Goes well with no hitting the QB anywhere except on the numbers or my favorite, hands to the face. Don’t tackle from behind around the shoulders and your not allowed to defend against a pass…………..use to call this game ROUGH tackle.

Barkley has always been self-centered. He has no idea if the word angers anybody.
What he doesn’t realize is that his homies are too busy acting like his posse to ever point out anything that they would consider as rude.

I’d love to know if Barkley thinks Incognito was using that term as a friend or foe towards Martin. I’m sure if you placed a mic on Kevin Garnett, Ray Rice, Sid Crosby, or Miguel Cabrera the general public would be led to be ‘outraged’ by their smack talk although we all know that friends give each other a hard time 24/7. If you take what the media is saying, then the TV show “The League” should be banned for life from every station ever.

Charles Barkley is dead wrong. If we want to wipe the “n” word from the lexicon of American language because it denotes hatred and prejudice, then it needs to stop being used by EVERYONE. Period. If I’m told that the word is an ugly word, then there’s no place that it is acceptable for use ANYWHERE. It’s not a hateful word if you’re telling me that there is a certain way it can be used and by only certain “qualified” people. Wrong is wrong.

ghjjf says:Nov 21, 2013 9:12 PM

What a big baby Williams is, regardless of what the ref may have said to him. This is the same fool that punched a helmetless Shermon after the game while he himself still had his helmet for protection.

Call me stupid, but wouldn’t it be better to desesitize the word? The demeaner and context in which it is used is what makes it offensive. Words have no power.

commonsensedude says:Nov 21, 2013 11:55 PM

I’m black and I hate the usage of that stupid word (along with every other epithet directed at every other group) more than I can express. I don’t say it and wish no one else did either. And I strongly disagree with black folks like Charles Barkley and others who defend the word.

The usage of the word is actually an indictment against the intellect of the person who uses it. The word originated from people not being educated enough to properly pronounce the word “Negro” (which means “black” in most Latin-derived languages). Using the word may be intended to insult another person or to engage in street talk but in either case, it makes the person who uses it, regardless of their skin color, look like a moron.

Here’s a way to get rid of the word in professional football. When an official hears a player say it – or any other epithet – regardless of the colors of the individuals involved, throw the flag. Many of these kids are often too young and too self-absorbed to realize that people marched and died for their ungrateful behinds but they all understand they better not be the guy who keeps costing their team yardage.

Charles Barkley is my hero…
Locker rooms are in a world all to themselves… As a Nam veteran and jock most of my life, there is this brotherhood that people can’t feel until they are there… Its a “Respect”. Words don’t make respect. It isn’t the word that is disgusting, it is how it was is used with anyone… Thank you whoever the Creator is for the way I was raised. Words don’t make me friends…

As an african-american I stop using that word along time ago. I’m 36 years old now and I I have never been called that word to my face bye a person other than one of my own race, but even still the word is negative and it needs to be abolished from use. And in a professional atmosphere which sports stadiums are for the players and the referees it should not be used by blacks or whites. All of my friends know not to use that word around me and I even edit the word when Im singing rap songs

Barkley perfectly shows my problem with this issue: the double standard. Either make it okay for everyone or not okay for everyone. I don’t care about words, and I don’t care about skin pigmentation. All I want is some damn consistency. Is that too much to ask?

Charles Barkley comments but the race issue back 50 years. If a white said what he did about the N word as well as he comments on jokes about gays they would have been fired that day. For some reason the networks are afraid of Barkley. When blacks say the N word is unacceptable they themselves should demand his firing.

There is no double standard. It is about being “connected” and being “disconnected.” With your lady you are connected. You call her baby, boo, sweetie or some other nickname, but if someone else calls her the same simply because they heard you calling her that there would be a problem. In the case of the ‘N’ word, Blacks are seen as connected and Whites as disconnected, so the same rules apply.

I have seen Black people arguing and fighting and the word is thrown around with the same meaning as the ignorant racists, which is why I don’t use it. It IS the same word. Until people like Barkley stop using it , White people will want to use it to be included, it seems, but really there needs to be a cease usage on the word.

doubleogator says:Nov 22, 2013 10:50 AM

Double standards, always have been and always will be, there is a big problem in this country that no one talks about…reverse racism.

agor4004 says:Nov 22, 2013 1:24 PM

Good grief, this is all so ridiculous, in context. We are talking about the words grown men use in the heat of battle during a professional sporting event.
What’s next? Player A runs to the official and says “throw a flag on Player B because he called me a bad word”. Ridiculous. We seriously need to get a grip

What was RG3 doing at the Phily game ? LOOKED LIKE A deer in headlights. throwing passes up with no receivers in the area.

thirdistheworrd says:Nov 22, 2013 2:41 PM

godofwine330 says: Nov 22, 2013 2:06 AM

As an african-american I stop using that word along time ago. I’m 36 years old now and I I have never been called that word to my face bye a person other than one of my own race, but even still the word is negative and it needs to be abolished from use. And in a professional atmosphere which sports stadiums are for the players and the referees it should not be used by blacks or whites. All of my friends know not to use that word around me and I even edit the word when Im singing rap songs
__________
commonsensedude says: Nov 21, 2013 11:55 PM

I’m black and I hate the usage of that stupid word (along with every other epithet directed at every other group) more than I can express. I don’t say it and wish no one else did either. And I strongly disagree with black folks like Charles Barkley and others who defend the word.
______________
As a black man who’s clearly younger than both of you, I don’t necessarily like the word, and I’m not going to argue in favor of the reappropriation of that word, but you simply need to be honest with yourself and understand that this is a reality now: it’s a part of Our culture, and it isn’t going to go away.

In fact, it could be argued that by trying to keep the word forbidden we are simply reinforcing the old fault lines of the racism that has historically torn this country and its people apart. If We, as a people want to move forward; and we, as Americans, want the past to stay in the past, we should allow old walls to crumble naturally, not worry about patching them back up. My father is from Montgomery, my mother was in Washington in 1963, and that’s what they were marching for.

You don’t have to say the word, and you don’t have to enjoy hearing it, but you shouldn’t demonize the direction Our culture is heading.

Trent Williams is an idiot. He should be fined and suspended. He is the poster child of all that is wrong with the Washington football team. That is the locker room leader and veteran. No wonder they are such a dysfunctional franchise.

revskip says:Nov 25, 2013 7:07 PM

I wonder if it will still be okay to say “That’s my Redskin.” after someone makes a good play?